SOLANA BEACH  Members of 13 households displaced from a Solana Beach mobile-home park nearly 20 years ago will have first dibs at a new affordable housing complex the city is pursuing a block from its exclusive coastal bluffs.

Solana Beach is obligated to weigh the applications of people from those households first for the proposed complex, called The Pearl, because of a legal settlement in 1993. There are 28 individuals named in the settlement, last updated in 1999.

The 13 households were forced from Section 8 government affordable housing on Highway 101 and South Sierra Avenue in 1993 when the landowner wanted to build something else, City Manager David Ott said. The parcel remains undeveloped, as past proposals have failed.

The Pearl, a 10-unit complex planned for Sierra Avenue, is the city’s latest effort to make good on the settlement. The $6 million-plus complex hasn’t been approved yet, and many neighbors vehemently are opposing it, as evidenced at a heated public workshop Aug. 15 introducing the project. Residents packed the City Council chambers, many complaining that The Pearl would increase traffic, loitering, reduce property values, and wouldn’t mesh with the surrounding blufftop condominiums that line Sierra Avenue.

“The city just seems too desperate to fund the building of 10 units to complete the settlement of a bungled lawsuit regarding the loss of 13 low-income units,” said Mark Tiddens, an area resident.

The Condominium Organization of South Sierra Avenue will vote by Sept. 2 on whether to formally oppose the project. Story poles indicating the outline of the building are now in place at the site, a public parking lot near a beach access.

Attorney Catherine Rodman, who represents a handful of the former mobile-home park residents, said it is an irrational fear that affordable housing tenants would be bad neighbors.

“There’s such a demand for affordable housing, they’d get the cream of the crop,” she said.

City Councilman Dave Roberts said Solana Beach has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending lawsuits for not supplying the required affordable housing.

According to the settlement, the city was to replace the 13 mobile-home park units by 1999. It didn’t, but then agreed to have them by Dec. 31, 2000. Still nothing. So far, only three units have been built, on Cedros Avenue in 2005. Those were also offered to the households from the mobile-home park, but none applied, City Attorney Johanna Canlas said. Whether the city did enough to inform them is disputed.

“My clients lived in a dump. ... They (the city) promised to build replacement housing, and they’ve been waiting ever since,” Rodman said. “There has been no good-faith effort.”

Public records show the city sent 41 certified copies of a letter in 2005 about the development on Cedros. Of those, 29 went to the previous mobile-home park addresses, presumably to be forwarded. Solana Beach received return receipts to seven of the 41 letters.

“You do your best,” Ott said. “We reach out even to whoever might have access to them.”

Ott said the city would do similar outreach if the Pearl is approved. It is expected to go before the City Council Sept. 28.

The complex will have the remaining 10 units, from one to four bedrooms, in almost exactly the configuration spelled out in the settlement. A one-bedroom would cost $768 a month in rent; the four-bedroom would go for $1,168.

When contacted for this story, Rodman said she didn’t even know the city had been proposing The Pearl. She lamented that no one from the 13 prospective households was given an opportunity to provide comment during the publicly noticed workshop, unlike the attendees from the surrounding neighborhood. She said she has kept tabs on several of her clients, many of whom speak minimal English.

Canlas, the city attorney, said those in the settlement must still qualify for affordable housing if interested.

According to a June workshop, the city must build 140 to 145 affordable housing units over the next 10 years to satisfy a state requirement. Households with qualifying incomes would be eligible for The Pearl. A family of four, for instance, must earn $27,500 to $48,700 to be eligible.

The Pearl would be built on a public parking lot with 31 spots. It’s now used primarily as a beach access. If approved, the city pledges to retain the 31 spots for the public, with an additional 23 for tenants underground.

The Pearl, as proposed, would also include a 1,300-square-foot market. It would be developed by Ginger Hitzke, whose firm has also built Autumn Terrace in San Marcos and Citron Court in Lemon Grove, both affordable housing complexes. The city has already given out a predevelopment loan, a routine procedure despite the lack of the project's formal approval, Ott said.